This Is Bliss
by galindadaae
Summary: Mary and Matthew meet race car driver Henry Talbot in London, 1924. It goes about as well as you'd expect. (a fix it fic for 6x06)


_A quick note: In this Universe, Matthew and Mary have had three kids (George, Eleanor, and Mabel). George is 3, Eleanor is 2, Mabel is 3 months. Enjoy!_

* * *

 ** _This Is Bliss_**

* * *

 _London, June of 1924._

Mary sighed once more as she surreptitiously glanced at the clock over the mantelpiece. Dinner had dragged on for what seemed like hours on end and now Mary was counting the minutes until she and her husband would be able to make a socially acceptable escape back to Grantham House. It wasn't as if Mary disliked the dinner party's host Sylvia Craven, or the lavish decorations strewn around the grand hall of the house in Belgravia. Rather, she missed her children (though the only person she would ever admit that to was her husband).

After having given birth to her and Matthew's third child, Mabel, just three months ago, Mary had grown more and more reluctant to forsake an evening with her family for a dinner party and gossip about this year's round of debutantes. She almost shook her head. How she had changed. Once Mary had dreamed of hosting lavish parties at Grantham House, with a nondescript husband on her arm. She wouldn't be the Countess of Grantham but at least she would have had that. But looking back now, Mary saw the emptiness of that life, and would have never traded the family she loved so dearly for that type of existence. For without Matthew, that's all she would have had. Not a life, full of love and joy (not without its difficult moments, of course), but just an existence, meaninglessly moving through the years.

Shaking herself out of her reverie, Mary moved away from the group she had been standing by (it wasn't as if she could contribute, she hadn't been listening to a word they were saying!), and glanced toward the center of the large drawing room. There stood her husband and brother-in-law, talking to some tall, dark-haired man Mary had never seen before. She was intrigued, to be sure, so she put her glass on the tray of a passing footman and strode over to her husband, slipping her arm around his as she was so accustomed to doing.

"Actually, I just tried out the car down at Brooklands, and it was a tremendous success. Even my friend Charlie Rodgers commended me on a job well done." This new man sounded quite confident, but Mary had no idea what he was talking about. As usual, she just gave him a polite half smile. She was surprised, however, when her husband eagerly joined the conversation.

"I've had an AC for a couple of years, but I could never dream of driving cars for sport." Ah, a race car driver. The dark-haired man laughed softly at her husband's remark before looking at Mary with interest.

"Hello, I'm Henry Talbot. How do you do?" Mary was surprised this stranger had addressed her directly instead of asking to be introduced.

"Lady Mary Crawley." She put out her hand briefly to allow him to take it before wrapping it once more around Matthew's arm.

"Mr. Talbot was just telling us about his preparations for the Grand Prix in a couple of months," Matthew offered.

"How lovely," Mary responded. To be quite honest, she couldn't care less, but her etiquette lessons demanded she take an interest. "And how long have you been racing these metal contraptions, Mr. Talbot?" Mary grabbed another drink of champagne from a footman and took a sip while waiting for him to answer.

"It's been around four years now. We all needed something to do after the war, and I found my métier was cars." Tom looked at Talbot like he had just found his new idol. Mary couldn't have cared less for an unnecessarily reckless sport. At least horse-riding necessitated connection with the animal. It was an art to get a horse to trust you enough. But cars? She enjoyed Matthew's fascination with them- even indulging him every once in a while, but she would never let him onto a track with his AC.

Tom continued to ask Henry all sorts of questions about cars, and Matthew finally turned his attention to his wife.

"How are you doing?" he asked softly.

"I'm alright. A little tired, but not too much," she patted his hand.

"If you want to go, I'm sure Sylvia wouldn't mind. It's not that early."

"I'll be alright for at least a while longer yet." Mary rolled her eyes fondly at her always-worrying husband.

"Well, if you're sure- " Matthew began.

"Matthew, look!" Tom cut in excitedly. "There's Lord Coventry. We should go talk to him; I know you were interested in hearing his thoughts about the new irrigation techniques."

"Yes, I was." He turned to his wife once more. "Mary, do you- "

Mary cut him off gently with a wave of her hand. "Go. I've listened to you talk about him for the past two weeks at least, you might as well actually hear his opinions at some point." He smiled at her. "I'm sure Mr. Talbot will be able to keep me entertained for a couple of minutes, won't you, Mr. Talbot?"

"Of course, Lady Mary," Henry responded immediately. Matthew looked at Henry more hesitantly than before, reluctant to leave his wife with a man he himself had met only five minutes previously. But he knew Mary could handle herself quite well (in fact she was the picture of elegance), so he kissed her cheek quickly and dashed to the other side of the room with Tom.

* * *

Matthew was not pleased. Ever since he and Tom had left Mary in the hands of Henry Talbot, the man had been unashamedly ogling his wife, who was wearing a brand new gown of turquoise and gold that quite daringly showed her shoulders as well as sporting her rather recent bobbed hair- a treat to herself after giving birth to Mabel three months previously.

He knew his wife was beautiful, but as the years had passed since their marriage the men and women offering dalliances to himself and Mary had dwindled significantly. He guessed people had realized they were terribly happy together and gave up on the chase. Except for, apparently, Henry.

Matthew's hand tightened around the glass he had just been handed as Talbot moved towards Mary and put his hand on her upper arm. He rolled his eyes and tried to concentrate on the conversation at hand. Really, Matthew had never known there could be so many ways to irrigate a field of crops! But Tom and Lord Coventry could not distract him when this time, Henry Talbot not only leaned into Mary, but whispered into her ear something only she could hear. Mary's eyes widened in surprise before Talbot laughed loudly, and Mary laughed along with him.

"I knew this was a bad idea," he muttered to himself bitterly, taking a rather large swig from his glass.

"You alright, Matthew?" Tom asked with his Irish lilt.

"Fine." He responded tightly. Lord Coventry had only covered two of the five irrigation methods mentioned at the beginning of the conversation, and it had been nearly ten minutes. Matthew felt the beginning of a headache coming on.

* * *

Mary was not pleased. Her husband had left her with this stranger for nearly thirty minutes now. She didn't know how Henry could keep coming up with excuses for them to continue their conversation when they had absolutely nothing in common. He lived in London, she was from Yorkshire, he went away to school, Mary had a governess. It was amazing they could talk for five minutes, let alone thirty.

Mary sipped slowly at her drink, not really wanting anymore alcohol but needing something to do. She looked around the room. Her parents and Granny were talking to the host Sylvia, and Edith seemed to have disappeared during the last five minutes. Henry turned to her once more. Mary forced herself to hold in her sigh and instead to brighten her eyes and feign interest in whatever this man would bring up next.

"Would you be interested in coming to watch me again at Brooklands next Saturday?" He asked. Henry was so grossly overconfident in his own attractiveness.

 _Well, maybe what he believes is attractiveness,_ Mary thought to herself. She smiled at her own joke. Unfortunately, Henry took that smile as a sign of encouragement. Mary intervened before he could speak again.

"I'll have to ask my husband," Mary smirked. Henry stuttered a bit at this, but quickly regained his confidence.

"How about… you don't tell him and come with me anyways?"

At this point, Mary had reached her limit and opened her mouth to firmly tell him off when she saw Matthew and Tom finally extricate themselves from such a tedious man. She grinned at Henry.

"Excuse me, Mr. Talbot, but I must go to my husband. Thank you for the fascinating conversation. I will not be seeing you next Saturday." She turned to walk away but then thought of one last remark. "And one last thing. Next time you try to woo a woman, pick one who isn't so happily married. Goodnight."

She met Matthew back over by the mantelpiece above the fireplace, but he wouldn't look at her.

"Henry Talbot certainly seemed eager to please." He had his classic sulk face on, exasperating Mary. Did he really think she had encouraged such idiotic advances?

"Yes, he did," she responded shortly.

"You seemed to enjoy yourself." Mary snorted. Nothing could be further than the truth! But she was indignant as his implication of her reciprocating Mr. Talbot's feelings.

"I think I'm ready to leave." She was mad. Matthew knew this. They stood near each other awkwardly.

"Well, most people are still waiting out the rain that began an hour ago."

"Oh, who cares," Mary cried out in frustration. "Let's just make our excuses to Sylvia and go." He nodded his acquiescence and dutifully followed his wife as she purposefully strode across the room. Even when he was frustrated with her, she was a sight to behold.

Soon enough Mary was standing at the doorway, waiting for Matthew to come beside her. Luckily the rain had stopped, so they were able to walk.

Yet five minutes of silent meandering down the streets of London later, the skies opened with a vengeance, and the couple was forced to take shelter under a bridge glowing with gold light. It was surprisingly quite beautiful. One could even have heard the music softly wafting out of the club across the street.

Mary saw that Matthew's hair had raindrops cascading from it, with the golden light from the lamp above casting a halo around him. _He is so magnificent._

Matthew glanced at his wife, entranced by the way the light was reflecting off the shiny material of her dress. _She is so magnificent._

Their eyes caught each other's. Matthew held out his hand, an invitation to dance. Mary smiled at him- a big smile, reserved only for him and their children- and gladly placed her hand in his. He pulled her in so closely that her hair pressed into his cheek, and their chests were nearly touching.

 _This,_ they thought, _is bliss._

They couldn't have said how many songs they danced to, simply taking in the presence of the other. Eventually, they knew they would have to make their way home, and their bodies had to part, except for Mary's ever-present hand on his arm and her head on his shoulder.

"I didn't encourage him, you know." Matthew remained silent. She wished she could see his face, but kept her head against his shoulder. "He kept going on and on about cars. Who cares about cars?" She could feel him beginning to smile. "It was really quite frustrating- if I thought I had a chance to escape, he would ask me another stupid question!" Mary could feel Matthew thawing.

"I'm not mad at you, Mary. Not at all. I'm just- "

"Jealous?" she prompted. She smirked at him delightedly.

"…Maybe."

"I'm going to be honest, though, darling. He may have invited me to Brooklands next Saturday." Matthew perked up at this.

"Brooklands? Did you give him our excuses?"

"I made _my_ excuses. You weren't invited. He made that quite clear." Matthew's mouth dropped open at this.

"He… asked you to come alone?" Matthew said, still in shock.

"Yes." Mary couldn't help it anymore, she burst out laughing. "Oh darling, he was so ridiculous! Thank God for Lord Coventry finally releasing you so I could leave and tell him off." Matthew laughed with her too for a moment before sobering a little.

"I never should have left you alone with him. I'm sorry, darling."

"Don't worry about it. He can be a funny story we tell at the next dinner party we go to." Mary cocked her head to the side. "Although I'm surprised he even attempted to lure me to Brooklands. I thought everyone knew by now that I'm happily married to Matthew Crawley, middle class solicitor."

"Upper middle class," he jokingly corrected, before leaning in to kiss his wife deeply. She wrapped her arms around his neck and ran her gloved fingers through the soft hair at the nape of his neck. They smiled into the kiss, and rested their foreheads together when they finally had to come up for air.

At that moment, the rain finally stopped. Matthew took Mary's hand and distractedly placed a kiss on the back of it while looking for any taxis available to take them the rest of the way home. Mary glanced at the profile she knew so well and made a decision.

"Let's just walk back," she announced.

"What if it starts to rain again?"

"Then we'll get wet."

"You're the boss, Lady Mary." Mary grinned. He shrugged his dinner jacket off his shoulders. "Here. I think you care for your dress more than I do my jacket. And I wouldn't want you to get sick." He placed it gently on her shoulders. They looked at the rain and each other. Mary nodded and they ran into the spray.

* * *

By the time they made it to Grantham House, Matthew was soaked through and Mary's hair looked a mess, though her dress was spared some due to him giving her his jacket. They still had somehow managed to arrive before the others, but decided no one would want to see them in their wet evening wear and dripping heads and headed up the stairs.

They quickly changed into sleepwear, and Anna just made it through the doorway before Matthew came into their bedroom. He was wearing Mary's favorite of the dressing gowns.

He smiled when he saw her damp hair, still hanging loosely since it was too short for Anna to plait it. Mary got up from her spot at her vanity and moved past Matthew's open arms toward the door. He was confused for a moment, and then realized there was only one place outside of their bedroom Mary would want to go at this time of night. The nursery.

He followed her down the hall, and turned into the corridor where the set of rooms for the nursery were located. Hearing nanny snore across the hall, Mary and Matthew knew the coast was clear and that they could see their children (rather improperly, it was quite late) without being found out.

Mary turned the knob and went to each of the three cots, watching her children sleep. Well, two of them, at least. Eleanor and baby Mabel had their eyes closed, dreaming contentedly. George was awake, but was pretending to sleep so he wouldn't get in trouble for staying up past his bedtime.

Matthew knew his son too well, and could see George opening his eyes up and watching his Mama while she looked in on her other children. He walked over to his son's bed, and stroked his hair.

"What are you doing up, George?" he whispered. Mary turned around at the sound of Matthew's voice, but he gestured that everything was fine so she continued stroking her finger down Mabel's pale cheek.

"Papa, it's so hard to fall asleep here. You and Mama are never around when it's our bedtime like you are at home." George's little blue eyes began to well up, and Matthew's heart broke for his little boy.

"I'm sorry, George, but sometimes London can be a funny place." Matthew didn't know how to explain it to his son that going to parties was considered proper and spending time with your children is not.

"Funny?"

"Very funny. Sometimes Mama and I have to go other places during your bedtime, but we would much rather be here with you. I promise."

"Pinky swear?"

"Pinky swear." Matthew wrapped his pinky around the much smaller one of his son, and kissed the four-year old's hand. Mary came over and kissed George's head and also kneeled next to his bed. She didn't ask what was going on. Anything she had missed, Matthew would fill her in on later. "How about this, George? We'll give nanny a half day soon and we can all spend an afternoon together as a family."

George's face lit up and he began to clap his hands excitedly. Mary lovingly shushed him before he was able to wake up his sisters and smiled. Both mother and father gave their son one last kiss before heading back to their room.

Later, lying together in their bed, Mary spoke.

"When are we giving nanny a half day?"

"I wasn't sure." Matthew paused. Something was afoot. "Why do you ask?"

"How about next Saturday? I would have to cancel my date with Henry, though." She rose her eyebrow at him before they laughed together.

 _Fin._

* * *

 _I had a great time writing this! I love how in love this couple is, and I hope I portrayed that while keeping everyone in character. I'm planning on writing more and more one shots in my Matthew lives universe- which I have spent more time than I'm likely to admit planning out. If you have any Mary and Matthew post s3 moments you want to see- request on here or on tumblr, where I'm also galindadaae._


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